In the sixteenth episode of the third season of Battlestar Galactica, Cally and Tyrol get more screentime (VICTORY!!!!) when Tyrol is tapped to lead a possible labor revolt in the fleet. Intrigued? Then it’s time for Mark to watch Battlestar Galactica.
You know, this is a really solid episode of the show. I don’t think it’s the most amazing one we’ve seen so far, and it doesn’t really have that OH SHIT WHAT THE FUCK moment until nearly the end of the story, but instead chooses to gradually build the story and the characters in a more thoughtful way. In a way, it’s an expansion of what “The Woman King” dealt with, though this time, the show more explicitly addresses class.
Like “The Woman King,” I think that, in a general sense, the analogy is built well. We see how different people, born in different places, have a higher chance towards getting a “better” job, and how this system has become so intrinsic to human life that even in the tiny population of the human race that is left over, the class system still remains.
But I’m getting ahead of myself. The impetus for this entire story hinges on the logistics of space travel. The crew is tired, overworked, understaffed, and resources are low. And this is a constant thing. I don’t know what the timeline is on this show in terms of dates, so I can’t quote any measurement of time to say how long this has been going on, but we’ve been getting signs from the very beginning of the show that led us to this very moment. The frustration that we see throughout “Dirty Hands” is justified, and I’m happy that no matter what happens by the end, this is never explained away. The anger that people like Seelix feel–who’s stuck in a paltry job due to lack of personnel–is real and valid. Why should she be stuck doing things below her ability because she has “mission-essential duties”?
And to be fair, we do get to hear the other side of this situation, though I’m glad that ultimately, the show sides with the overworked. I think that what Xeno Fenner does is desperate and dangerous, and the fuel contamination that sparks all of this could have killed Racetrack, Skulls, Tory, Roslin, and any of the other people onboard the Colonial One. This show is not about making excuses, though; it gives reasons, and that’s an important distinction to make. Xeno does do something terrible that could have had much more horrific consequences, but the rest of “Dirty Hands” takes us through the events that would inspire a person to lash out so violently. It seems simple enough: Xeno is upset at the long hours, exhaustion, and general lack of any attention from the powers-at-be. (At least, that is, until the fuel supply is disrupted; then, plenty of attention is paid to him.) As expected, Roslin and Adama assure the man that they know things are difficult, but there’s only enough fuel for one or two jumps. A halt in production puts the whole fleet in danger. And that’s true. I won’t ignore that.
But things become much more complicated at the revelation that Gaius Baltar has taken it upon himself to write a book (or manifesto) that extols the working class against the ruling power. And while I admit that the episode’s understanding of class is limited, I also can’t ignore that there’s a whole lot of truth to what Baltar writes. (BSG, I love that you do this to me. LOVE.) As Cally later explains, class divisions based on where people were born plays heavily into what jobs they get later. And that is something that impresses me about this episode; it’s something that can absolutely be applied to the real world with a frightening accuracy. Cally points out how this is about access and status. The people from colonies like Gemenon, Sagittaron, and Aerilon are no less qualified than those from the more “prosperous” colonies, but they are provided with less options and chances right from the start, with nothing done to ever address this disparity that people are born into.
It was really inevitable, then, that Tyrol would be the one to be chosen to head to the refinery ship to sort things out with the workers. We get a portrait of a man torn between military duty and social empathy, especially since Tyrol has a past with labor organization. The conditions aboard the refinery ship don’t make anything easier for the man either. Aside from being overworked, the place is filthy and the equipment has a high chance of breaking down.
It’s here that we witness an intense game of chicken as the two sides in conflict begin to demand more and more from one another, sticking Tyrol in the middle of it all. The workers begin by hiding pressure seals to buy them time, but the bluff doesn’t work. Initially, I thought Roslin made a fair point: those who are working on algae processing, munitions, or waste all have difficult and dangerous jobs, so why should the refinery ship get special treatment? However, Roslin’s statement that labor demands amount to extortion was a bit too much for me, and this is just the beginning of the awful. Like I said before, though, this episode has a slow build. (I do concede that the scene with Cabbot clawing at his face was just…jesus goddamn christ, so fucking intense. NO THANK YOU.) From here, though, the escalation continues: Tyrol returns to the workers with defeat. And I say that because it’s clear from the way he acts and looks at these people that he knows he is in the wrong, at least in a personal moral sense.
That’s really what’s at play here, though. For all the talk of class warfare (MY LEAST FAVORITE TERM, FYI), this episode is deeply personal for Tyrol. What do you do when your morals clash with your duty? How do you deal with that sort of conflict? What impresses me so much about the character of Galen Tyrol is that he talks things through. It’s such a huge growth for him, too, especially when you think how secretive he was in season one. He talks to Roslin about the genuine grievances the workers have, namely that there’s no real choice for the children of the workers in the current system. And it actually gets Roslin to concede a plan to find workers from other ships/colonies! Holy shit sometimes this works.
Even when he finds one of Baltar’s makeshift “books,” he has to talk that through with Baltar as well. It’s this logical process that we witness, and it’s fascinating to me. But I can’t talk about this scene without discussing James Callis’s brilliant performance. When he switched to the Aerilon accent, not only did he convince me that Gaius actually grew up there, but I got chills. It seems I can’t go more than a single episode without being reminded what a phenomenal cast this is. Callis sells this moment to me and it doesn’t even look like he’s trying at all. HOW ARE THESE PEOPLE REAL.
But with the thoughts of Baltar’s ideas (genuine or not, they’re still frighteningly accurate) deep in his brain, Tyrol returns to the refinery ship. After a horrific accident involving a teenage boy, it becomes clear to the man that people are going to start dying if he doesn’t help them stand up to the officers in charge. Even if he is an officer in charge, I might add. And while I certainly cheered on the inside for the action, I wasn’t ready to celebrate. This wasn’t going to end well, was it? Oh, BSG, I’m starting to get you!
And here is where I admit how surprised and terrified I was by the ramifications of the general strike across the fleet. I expected a strong response, sure. That was sensical. I expected Tyrol to either remain on the refinery ship, or to accept arrest as a symbolic gesture. He took the latter, so I thought I knew what I was getting into.
And then Admiral Adama has Cally arrested.
And then he says he is going to execute her for being a mutineer.
And he says he will continue with the rest of the deck crew until Tyrol relents.
And then he actually orders the execution.
In contrast with “A Day in the Life,” it’s especially gutting. After all of that, Adama is willing to permanently tear this family apart. Make no mistake: I don’t doubt for one second that Adama was telling the truth. This was not a bluff, and Adama even spells out why: military orders must be obeyed at all times or else the entire point of command will fall apart. Which…okay, in hindsight, hasn’t Adama himself disobeyed commands out of a moral imperative? Admiral Cain, anyone?
Okay, so maybe this reasoning is a bit faulty, but I didn’t think about this until long after the episode ended. In the moment, I felt awful. It’s hard to pick a side in this, even though I sympathize entirely with Tyrol and the workers. If it is indeed true that the strike would have stranded the fleet, then perhaps Adama is right in asking for these demands to be met at a later time when things are more stable. But at the same time, this is a crew that’s been working every day since the original Cylon invasion. What if there’s no stability for five years? What if people start dying every day?
I felt so deflated when Tyrol ordered the strike to end. The energy was ramped up to an absurd level, and like a needle to a ballon, it was gone in an instant. Tyrol lost. Would he be fired? Demoted? Forced to spend time in the brig? God, when he calls Cally and Cally thinks he won??? This could not have a good end. This could not be a victory.
Which is precisely why I was SHOCKED that Admiral Adama awards Tyrol with time alone with President Roslin. UM WHAT. WHAT???? So the execution threat was just to end the strike, not to silence the labor force? oh my god this is actually a good ending??? Look, I cannot believe that an episode of this show (especially this far into the series) has what might very well be a happy ending.
Wait, are you unsure if this counts as a happy ending? I’m sorry, did you watch Tyrol and Roslin hanging out and being reasonable? I don’t think the two have ever been on their own like this, and the scene is rich with energy and hope. It is beautiful. If wasn’t already on board the Adama/Roslin ship, I might even start shipping Tyrol/Roslin. Might. It would take the power of a trillion dying suns to make me jump ship on Adama/Roslin, but…this dynamic is so fascinating to me!
And even if that isn’t enough…Seelix becomes a nugget. That deserves some joy, doesn’t it?
I like “Dirty Hands” a lot. I don’t think it’s the strongest episode of season three, but I appreciated the way this show dealt with how class combines with the pure chance of where you are born to strip people of options. It’s not that people actively oppress those who are poor. (Well…okay, that does happen, to be fair.) What we’re show is how a system can develop over the years, becoming so pervasive and accepted that until people stop to examine it, it presses on. We see people like Milo, Xeno, and then Baltar and Tyrol become involved in fighting against this, and while I don’t think it’s the most ~genius~ or ~100% accurate analogy~ for class oppression, I was pleased to see the show address it.
oh god just four episodes left of season three someone help me
FAVOURITE EPISODE EVER. FAVOURITE EPISODE EVER ALERT.
I just…I love this episode so much, and it’s hard to even put my finger on exactly why. So I’m gonna do a quick Mark-style list!
THINGS I LOVE ABOUT ‘DIRTY HANDS’:
-Adama accidentally? flirting with Roslin. LOL the look on her face.
-Tyrol being awesome. He’s such a great character!
-Seeing more of Cally and Tyrol together. We got a lot in ‘A Day In The Life’ anyway, but I just love seeing their relationship.
-More call-backs to New Caprica. It’s nice to know that experience still has a big effect on events now.
-THE MUSIC. Especially that scene where Tyrol turns off the machines? UNF. If I could marry a soundtrack…
-Learning more about Baltar’s past. Isn’t that whole scene just fascinating? It explains so much about his attitude.
-Baltar’s accent. Yes, it gets its own point. Apparently Baltar is from the colony of Yorkshire. Who knew?
-Baltar’s book. And the hilarious picture of him on the front, looking like Jesus.
-A happy ending. Is that too much to ask for occasionally? Tyrol gets what he wants, and Adama sends a very clear message about what happens to people who go up against him. (I personally don’t think he’d really have killed Cally though)
AND THE NUMBER ONE THING I LOVE ABOUT ‘DIRTY HANDS’:
-The whole way it deals with issues of class division. It’s done with tact, sensitivity, and it doesn’t gloss over the difficult issues by having us take Tyrol’s side unreservedly. As Roslin says, their situation is not ideal, and we actually get to see the down side of simply mixing up the jobs – that kid who wasn’t at all qualified to work with machinery and got seriously hurt. It actually raises some interesting points on both sides and makes it clear that this situation is not clear cut at all and there may be so simple solution. That being said, it’s SO AWESOME that the show actually addresses these things. The fact that everyone is still stuck in their old jobs is something Zarek mentioned way back in season one and it makes me so happy that people are starting to think ‘Well, he may have actually had a point’. That Roslin is willing to listen to Tyrol’s concerns is also a lovely call-back to her attitude in dealings with the teachers back in her Secretary of Education days. She’s always willingly to listen to the little guy, not just her own advisors.
UNF. If I could marry a soundtrack…
Love you forever and always Bear McCreary.
[youtube X6N_XXK6cns http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X6N_XXK6cns youtube]
Great as usual, even if a small part of me wishes for a Bear McCreary instrumental version of the Internationale to go with this episode. One of my favourites.
Adama and Roslin are adorable in this episode. "If the quarters become cramped, you're always welcome in one of my beds."
Someone HAS to have made a gif of that moment, right?
I thought it was an unwritten rule that we gif all Spaceparents moments without mercy.
I had tried but they didn't really work out so well. Hopefully someone else has better ones.
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I like the second one a lot. They're cute from a distance. 🙂
HNNNNNNGGGG I forgot how gorgeous her hair was in that scene.
Mary McDonnell, please teach me how to hair.
I want Mary McDonnell and Connie Britton from Friday Night Lights to teach workshops in How to Hair. It would be my greatest dream in life to attend such a thing.
Unfortunately, I think the key is to have a professional do it for you
And Karen Gillan. Holy crap her hair is gorgeous.
Oh god, I'm watching FNL right now (a few episodes into season 4) and I love her hair. It's glorious. And unrelated to hair, I now know why everyone says she was robbed of an Emmy — she totally was.
Welcome to the world of Friday Night Lights! I know it is on Mark's list of things to watch but I am terrified it is going to be like 3 years before he gets there and hnnnnnnng IT IS SUCH A GOOD SHOW.
Yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes. Adama's being all subtle and Roslin's all "Did he just say what I think he said?"
I'm not going to ask you if you just said what I think you just said, because I know it's what you just said.
Um, can this be a spin off? At this point I was just like who the fuck are all these other people that don't fix ships and work in factories and why are they taking so much time away from my dickensian/marxian melodrama IN SPACE. Why is this just one episode?
Also besides that I wanted it to last forever I thought it was pretty unrealistic for that whole situation to be resolved in one episode, but I guess they didn't want to put us in a position where we'd have to dislike a main character a lot. I am disappoint in the lack of beards though.
Just when I thought Gaius Baltar would never be funny again they go and make him Tom Zarek and the one great hope of the underclass. Enough said.
When I said earlier I had a related point but it was spoilery, I was thinking of this episode. Why couldn't we have had class issues all this time! As you say, why is this just one episode?
I like that they went there in this episode, but dammit why couldn't we have had so much more of this sort of content before? (And once more, all that time that could have been used for this sort of stuff if only they cut out all the love triangle shit.)
Also, apparently Baltar's backstory with his original class status was planned way in the beginning since it's covered in the BSG series bible. I wish they could have used time previously building up to this reveal, especially since it was planned for his character at the beginning. But it only comes out when he wants to be the great hope of the underclass.
I had a feeling this was it!
Yeah Baltar's manifesto before we got to the reveal about his background was just hilarious to me, it definitely would have been very different if we'd got a hint of his backstory before this point. The way he acted before definitely read to me as a guy who had things handed to him a lot because he didn't seem especially smooth or streetsmart, which of course in the past has been really good for the lulz. Or maybe it's just that six has been telling him what to do for his entire run on the show, either way this dude is made of teflon.
But yeah going from threatening to shoot everybody in one scene to negotiating a compromise just like that was a pretty weird transition and happened way too easily for my taste. Totes a shame they couldn't develop this story over more episodes.
I love the camera work on this show. I was reminded of that especially in the scene with Baltar and Tyrol. The camera is another actor in the scene, really, and the way it pushes right in on Baltar's face is awkward and uncomfortable and feels, somehow, wrong and invasive, which is exactly how we're meant to feel. I'm an editor in my day job, and I can only imagine how much fun it would have been to work with the incredible footage coming from this set!
‘If the quarters become cramped, you’re always welcome in one of my beds… in a manner of speaking.’
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*ahem*
I really like how this episode depicts how class difference works and, you’ve already said it all Mark, how it shows how systems like class are perpetuated when people don’t stop and examine exactly what’s happening.
Also, yay Seelix!
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YES only Gilmore Girls gifs can express my inner ~feelings~ at that line.
Definitely had the same reaction to that quote.
And I might have teared up when Seelix got her promotion. She's so happy!
Seelix is so cute and happy!!!! <3
Vg jba'g ynfg.
She is my BSG girlfriend. I love her so. Yay, nugget Seelix!
This is such a good episode. Baltar? Is amazing! (Or rather, James Callis is.) I also get chills when he starts talking about his childhood and switches accents and the camera angles and oh man.
And this is such a perfect example of privilege that I wish I could show it to every single person in the world. It’s exaggerated, but that’s what SciFi is for!
And spoilers for B5: Zna, vs guvf jnf Fvapynve va punetr, ur jbhyq unir unq guvf nyy jenccrq hc jvgubhg guerngravat nalbar’f qrngu. Cbvag 1 sbe Fvapynve.
James Callis is so great– though this episode did start the great debate of "Baltar changed his accent to an accent that no on else on Caprica has" discussion.
While they do tackle similar subject matter, IMHO this episode is a vast improvement on The Woman King. While some of the characters to express some negative attitudes it at least feels consistent with other episodes. I'm really not explaining this point very well so maybe I should move on.
It's thankfully a brief scene but Laura ordering the guards to search Gaius, and them actually starting to do it always makes me really uncomfortable for everyone involved.
Seelix becomes a nugget. That deserves some joy, doesn’t it?
It really does, her face as she runs out. She's so damn happy to be given her chance at Viper training. That whole scene with Tyrol and the other deckhands saluting her as she leaves is really nice. And we get to see Starbuck back in Flight Instructor mode which is awesome to see again.
"If the quarters become cramped you're always welcome in one of my beds" It looked like Laura's brain went to the same place as mine did at that line, right into the gutter.
A dirty mind is a joy forever.
This is a great episode, and another topic that I'm glad BSG tackled. It's definitely a "very special episode", but an example of one done well.
Baltar is especially interesting in this episode. His backstory makes sense for him. He abandoned his family and his heritage to seek a better life, not for his children but for himself. It fits right into his Slytherin nature. That he reclaims it here can only come from a place of selfish ambition. Yes, he's making some good points and getting the fleet talking. He's also trying to get back in the good graces of the populace by empowering the large lower class in the fleet. I half-wonder if this was an idea Head!Six planted. As much of a survivor as Baltar is, I'm not sure he would have come up with this idea all on his own.
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And now for his new look…Jesus!Baltar!
You know, I really didn't like Baltar the first time I watched this show, but he is now absolutely one of my favorite characters. He is so fascinatingly concerned with self-preservation. I just love the little twists and turns his personality takes.
I enjoy how his hair is still ~fabulous~ even on the cover of his class-warfare manifesto. Never change, Gaius.
ALL CLASSES SHOULD HAVE ACCESS TO HAIR GEL AND THEIR OWN PERSONAL STYLISTS *fist pump*
Has anyone made up a really wanky explanation of why they cut the corners off their paper? The weirdest things bother me.
It's funny because they did threw that into the miniseries because it "looked cool." Then as the series went on they were like "what were we thinking? This is such a pain!"
They need all the triangles for Craft Night, when they make the model vipers.
<3
I never expected Gaius' speech about his native accent to touch me as deeply as it did. It came completely out of nowhere and remains one of the few scenes from the show that I can quote nearly word for word. A great number of my family hail from the north of England, and growing up in a slightly more southern town (southern enough for everyone else to have a mostly different accent anyway), my voice was yet another thing about myself that I wished I could change. I've become a lot more accepting of my accent over the last few years however, even If I'm not entirely comfortable about other parts of myself. I owe this mostly to Christopher "lots of planets have a north" Eccleston, yet another thing I have to thank Doctor Who for, but I do think that if I had watched this episode at the same age, it would've had mostly the same effect. Simply a wonderful scene.
I just love that extra bit of Baltar's backstory. The idea of him deciding to change his accent at ten years old shows a huge amount of discipline. And really, for him to be 'Dr. Baltar' and have such a wide range of knowledge must have entailed a large amount of study and work, which really gets overshadowed by his hedonistic lifestyle. Like I said, I love it.
Also – James Callis talking about the genesis of Baltar's Aerilon accent (stop at 3:00 to avoid spoilers):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9F5stQkdH48
And now for something completely different – I was shopping yesterday, and saw this license plate:
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Which made me think of Mark Does Stuff, and therefore I am sharing.
When the sixth book came out, I made a t-shirt for myself that said "Horcruxes" across the chest. It got some looks, let me tell you. Fandom inside jokes = THE BEST JOKES.
Whatever you do, do NOT get in that car!
I have a shirt with just the Marauders' names on it, so I'm always pleased when someone gets the reference.
Oh that's a fantastically entertaining video, thanks for sharing.
That video made me giggle more than a little bit when I found it. He just looks so young with the short-ish hair, too.
LOTR movie-related comment: Naq abj V pna gbgnyyl vzntvar Wnzrf Pnyyvf va gur ebyr bs Fnzjvfr Tnztrr.
oh my god i agree about Baltar SO MUCH. I think this adds a whole other fascinating dimension to his character–I'd assumed he was born into incredible privilege and played polo all day long and yachted on summers from Caprica MIT, but he's a self-made man sort of–at least socially. Fucking fascinating.
Posting this separately:
TRIGGER WARNING FOR TOMORROW'S EPISODE (ZNRYFGEBZ) for puvyq nohfr.
I love that BSG is able to tackle racism and the class oppression, and I think the points brought up are excellent, but I wish the writers could find a way of discussing them a bit more creatively or elegantly. I mean, who didn’t figure that one of the kids would be injured while working? It’s not like I was rolling my eyes at Danny, but he played the part we all expected him to and now we’ll probably never see him again.
I guess I’m just being whiny because this episode could have been SOOOOOOOOOOOOO much worse and rage inducing had they not treated the topic of class division with respect. And it was still a good episode! And James Callis needs to be added to the list of actors who deserve all the awards. I’m just used to BSG taking my expectations, throwing them out the airlock, and doing the exact opposite, while this time there wasn’t as much expectation expulsion.
I was actually kinda rolling my eyes at Danny, I think I actually said out loud "he'll never play the violin again!" when that happened. I liked the rest of the episode though!
Unlike last episode, I was worried that Tyrol and/or Cally wouldn't make it here. And Danny Noon. Once he was under the belt, I was very worried that they had given him a name and that he would die a horrific and bloody death.
Baltar's Aerilon accent was awesome. I was rather freaked out by how the camera focused on his mouth the entire time, but it certainly sold it for me. I'm never going to be able to watch James Callis in Bridget Jones' Diary the same way ever again.
And I felt so proud for Seelix.
On an unrelated note, my friend served David Cross, aka Tobias Funke, at the bar she works at this weekend. I am jealous.
In relation to your last point: I think I just blue myself.
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So jealous
And Danny Noon. Once he was under the belt, I was very worried that they had given him a name and that he would die a horrific and bloody death.
I totally thought the same thing, especially in the few seconds between the machine starting and him being pulled back out. I thought he was either dead or that he'd lost a hand or part of his arm. I was kind of relieved when it was "just" a break, albiet a really bad one.
Yeah, I was worried they were then going to have him lose a finger and then put in a thing about how he always wanted to be a professional piano player or something.
ROFL
Yeah that's not really the most interesting reply. I just wanted to share the slightly spooky coincidence that I was reading your comment on this entry right as the email about this reply arrived.
"Once he was under the belt, I was very worried that they had given him a name and that he would die a horrific and bloody death. "
Oh yeah. I actually refused to look at the screen because I was anticipating a horrific scream and gouts of blood. It was almost an anticlimax to have him pulled out and (fairly quietly, considering) reveal that his arm was mangled.
Does anyone else think of Mein Kampf when they think about the whole plot with Baltar's book? I have to admit that that is immediately where my mind went when I first heard of it. Does that make me a bad person, considering the fact that Baltar makes a ton of uncomfortable-yet-true points?
Oh holy crap it totally did and I forgot to mention that. Not cause they're comparable figures at all but cause of the title.
The only real resemblance is the word "My".
There are situational/contextual similarities, if not literal. For example, both were written by political leaders while imprisoned. Can't really think of anything else, but that's why my mind jumped to Mein Kampf as well.
Heh, my mind always goes to Marx and Engel's 'The Communist Manifesto', but probably because that's the one I've actually read bits of.
It's definitely more Marxist in nature than Hitler.
RDM refers to it as "Baltar's Mein Kampf" in the commentary. So, no.
But I can’t talk about this scene without discussing James Callis’s brilliant performance. When he switched to the Aerilon accent, not only did he convince me that Gaius actually grew up there, but I got chills.
ACCURATE ALERT. I died watching this episode. James is so fantastic, and that accent switch brought me to a halt. I love that fine detail of who Baltar is – how he's ashamed of his past and had to completely recreate himself in order to convince people that he belonged on Caprica even though the is an uber genius scientist. Fascinating.
Man, this episode. I have a lot of feelings!
And probably most of all I actually have to disagree about this being a happy ending because I think Adama and Roslin do a pretty good job of using their positions at the top of the political, military and class power heap to silence the workers without making any actual substantive changes to the system and to set up a pretty freezing precedent for any hypothetical future labour action. It's a bit of a ENJOY YOUR TOKEN MOMENT TO AIR GRIEVANCE OKAY NOW BACK TO THE STATUS QUO DON'T DO IT AGAIN moment, and I get on one level that this is a necessary product of a serialized show where episodes like this aren't really meant to disturb the status quo, but it doesn't do much for my plummeting opinion of Roslin and Adama as leaders of the fleet.
I really do wonder what Roslin is doing with her time. How is it that the Secretary of Education apparently hasn't set up a school system in the fleet? Yes, she listens to the workers in this episode, but how had things gotten to that point? 50,000 isn't really a lot of people. In ways, she's the mayor of a medium-sized town. She really should be more on top of things.
And the thing is, it's not her. It's the writers and that they don't seem to care about the civilian side of things.I would honestly prefer they ignore that part of the fleet entirely then trot it out for Very Special Episodes.
All the upvotes. My hometown is maybe around 60,000 people so the mayor parallel is a point that resonates with me. Sure there's a lot of responsibility to manage but it shouldn't be too hard to keep tabs on the goings-on of a decent portion of your people if there's only 50,000 of them.
And yeah, I feel kind of bitter towards an episode like this because I want to see these things explored but I'm so disappointed by the Very Special Episode aspect of it since it just makes me wish for what could have been where these things could be properly integrated into the show from the beginning and continued to be explored throughout the show.
My town's about half that size, but even if I couldn't get directly to the Mayor with a problem, I could most certainly get the a member of the town council. Which makes you wonder what the Quorum is doing as well.
There's an interesting character choice they could have made with Roslin: Her religious beliefs combined with her cancer diagnosis made her short-sighted. She didn't plan on the fleet spending years searching nor on them settling on an uninhabited planet. She's been slow to adjust to the changing circumstances and she's going to start reorganizing things to work better.
If they went that way with that episode, I think I would have liked it a lot more.
I absolutely agree! I mean, I will cop to the fact that have a lot of problems with some of the political decisions Roslin DOES make in the series. But I think a lot of this stems from the fact that BSG is fundamentally not that interested in exploring too far beyond the military, so it never looks to deeply into a lot of the social side of things. And ultimately, I'd much rather not be asked to celebrate things as victories on the rare occasions the script does venture into the civilian bits of the fleet when they're pretty… hollow… victories…
Yeah total agreement. You can't really go "end the strike or I'll shoot everyone, lol jk" and that makes everything good again. I mean, Cally was almost executed at the beginning of the season, the threat of repeating this, EVEN if it's a total bluff is really serious but we're going to have everyone get over it a couple of minutes later? Not cool, even if this was an easily resolvable situation, which it totally isn't.
I wish I could reply more intelligently, but I am basically just going THIS THIS THIS.
Yeah, I thought it was really weird to go and make that parallel to the occupied New Caprica days and then just handwave it. I like Roslin too but come on.
Balter's Yorkshire accent broke my brain. 'Tis grim oop North you guys. The funny thing is he changed it to be more Caprican but no other Capricans sound like that.
Naq uvf sngure unq n jrfg pbhagel npprag. Znlor nyy gur cbfu cfrhqb Oevgf yvir ba Ivetba juvyr gur Jrfg Pbhagel naq Abegurearef yvir ba Nrevyba? Orphnfr sebz gung OFT znc gung jnf eryrnfrq njuvyr ntb vg'f cerggl boivbhf gung Ivetba = Ratynaq naq gur Fpbgf/Vevfu yvir ba gur fznyyre cynarg evtug arkg qbbe. Lrf V unir chg gbb zhpu gubhtug va gb guvf yby.
Maybe he was trying for a part of Caprica other than Caprica City? Maybe Nurse Ishay is from there? ???
Caprica is an entire planet, there's more on it than just Caprica City.
I mean, if there were eleven other habitable and densely inhabited planets in this solar system we wouldn't exactly assume that, say, a Brooklyn accent was the only possible "Earth" accent, would we?
This episode is when I firmly decided that Gaius "Frakkin" Baltar was my absolute favorite character on TV(at the time, closely followed by Sayid Jarrah). And it's all because of James Callis. In a lesser actor with no ability to bring this much nuance, humor, slight menace, irony and sadness, Baltar would have been a terrible character. And by terrible I mean one-dimensional. Gods, Callis was just so amazing. When he discussed his background, I actually cried because of his own shame. I love James Callis. Plain and simple.
And Mark, ohhh, you are just so UN- frakkin-PREPARED. I fear for your well-being moving forward 🙂
OH MY GOD I LOVE SAYID SO FUCKING MUCH.
omg omg <3
Heh. I'm lucky I didn't know about Jack Harkness at the time because my head would have exploded flipping between the three as my faves. I only learned of Mr. Harkness this year. 🙂
But yeah Sayid was my favorite on LOST
But I can’t talk about this scene without discussing James Callis’s brilliant performance. When he switched to the Aerilon accent, not only did he convince me that Gaius actually grew up there, but I got chills.
There once was an actor named Callis
Who played a "villain" with intrigue, not malice.
Mark got a chill
From his consummate skill
To change accents from cultured to callous.
There once was a blogger named Mark
Who suffered an excess of snark
He read ‘Game of Thrones’
To soften his tones.
‘Til the future was looking quite 'Stark'
Wait, that doesn’t really make sense, I can do better…give me some time…
No, no, Mark didn't actually like anything he reviewed until Harry Potter (which was like the second thing he ever reviewed?) so any softening limericks would have to deal with that.
Um, I know I should attempt to write it but I am fail so can I ask one of you clever people to do it instead?
AND OH MY BITTEN NAILS, POOR BROKEN HEART AND FLOODS OF TEARS HE IS NOT PREPARED. *sob*
Oh my god, this episode gives me SO MANY FEELINGS.
-Gaius Baltar's past and accent, omg. I come from a family with accents. Most coastal people who meet my parents think they have "southern" accents; that's not true at all. My mom has a Kansas-Texas mish-mash; my father has an Ozarks accent, and my stepfather has a 100% Texas accent. I had a Texas accent before I intentionally stopped using it when I was in high school, for reasons very similar to Baltar's (nowadays, I wish I could turn my accent back on, but I can't, although it sometimes returns when I am speaking to someone else with an accent). My mother's mother spoke in broadcaster's English–because she consciously worked to erase her own Mexican accent, and refused to teach my mother & her siblings Spanish, so that THEY wouldn't ever have accents.
-OMG, labor unions. Organized labor is directly responsible for just about every opportunity I have had in my life. My parents, who both grew up on welfare in rural America, jumped class basically solely due to organized labor. It's so ridiculous to think about how much labor reform we owe to the labor organizations of the past! And gosh, the story of that poor kid who was suddenly a "farmer" due to a job he had ONCE. I am just always amazed at how well this show covers such pertinent issues so relevantly ALL THE TIME.
-Basically, this episode speaks to THE CORE OF WHO I AM. And also makes me really happy that I'm not one of the last survivors of humanity stuck in a tin-can in orbit. Also, I totally wrote like 1500 words on this episode and then went WHOA NELLY TOO MUCH SHARING; THAT IS MARK'S JOB. just so you know.
One set of my great-grandparents emigrated to America from Germany shortly before the start of World War I, then had the unenviable task of deciding how much of their national heritage to hold onto when everyone around them started hating Germany and waited to see what stand they would take. Ultimately, they changed the pronunciation of their last name and wiped out any trace of accent in their kids. So that scene kind of speaks to me too.
Wisconsin changed the pronunciation of a town here (New Berlin, which is now New BERlin). It seems ridiculous in hindsight, but I suppose these days we have shit like "freedom fries." Not that that's ANY less ridiculous.
My mother's mother spoke in broadcaster's English–because she consciously worked to erase her own Mexican accent, and refused to teach my mother & her siblings Spanish, so that THEY wouldn't ever have accents.
Man, that's so sad. I hate when cultures don't get passed down because of oppressive ideas about those cultures.
I really liked this episode for addressing the class issue. I did have a bit of trouble with the idea that they've been at this for three years and are only now considering training extra people for critical jobs like the refinery or Galactica's deck crew. What are all the other people in the fleet doing? Some are running the ships or growing plants on the botanical ship, but by this point everyone should be getting trained for practical jobs, regardless of their former occupations.
yes, this! It goes back to my ongoing desire for Cottle to be followed by six trainees at all times learning how to be doctors the old-fashioned way. He's the most valuable man in the fleet, folks, you might want to pass that knowledge on! Plus there are tons of people who can't do whatever their former occupations used to be and are stuck on ships – have they been sitting around all this time? Cuz that's not a recipe for unrest and disaster AT ALL.
Not to mention the people who have skills which might not be of use now, but would be very important once they found a planet. Like, say, architects? Maybe you should be training a few of those….
Oh I'm sorry, one more thing.
As much as love Tricia Helfer and James Callis, IMO, I just adore the bizarre chemistry between Callis and Mary McDonnell. They are always just so wonderful together.
After this episode I found myself for the first time asking the question "Who was the Colonial Fleet first organized to fight?" because we know it pre-dates the Cylons. It's been there all the time (since Bastille Day, when we find out about Zarek), but this episode really made it sink in for me.
Plus, the music is amazing. As usual.
No, it doesn't pre-date the Cylons. The Colonies had separate governments and militaries and sometimes fought each other. Which is why they created warrior robots.
What does Zarek have to do with it? He was incarcerated about 20 years after the Cylon War, and I don't recall the Colonial fleet being mentioned in connection with his incarceration. Can you please elaborate?
I was attempting to be as vague and non-spoilery as possible, but the crux of my point is that Inter-Colonial politics are messy and uncomfortable.
To me, this episode is The Woman King done correctly. Everyone is perfectly in character, and the conflict arises due to the natural pressure of the situation, not half the cast developing prejudices that will never be seen before or after.
The one bit that feels kind of off is the accident that gets Tyrol to declare the strike, where it takes the kid until he's pulled out and everyone can see the wound to decide "Okay, this hurts now."
I thought that was totally in character; Tyrol didn't start to think about the political aspect of it again until they made sure the kid wasn't dead. Once the immediate physical threat to the kid is dealt with, then he gets his political mind back in gear.
Yeah, I was expecting him to start screaming right away.
Dear everybody,
I am not watching along, I have seen a total of 2 episodes and I am only reading the reviews but I wanted you all to know that, when I dozed off in class today (shh), there was Battlestar Galactica in my dreams. Starbuck was there and Grace Park I think and Tyrol, and there was some kind of party going on. It was pretty cool.
Also, I saw this and thought of y'all:
<img src="http://i127.photobucket.com/albums/p150/Falcon823/tumblr_lrov05pQtK1qmtlgp.gif">
The guy who played Baltar also played the gay best friend in “Bridget Jones’ Diary”. Consider your mind blown.
I really liked this episode and the fact that the show finally addressed social inequality and all that. Gaius as Marx was absolutely brilliant. But, the resolution seems pretty rushed. They show some significant, real problems with no easy answer. Then, they wrap it up with a happy ending. It's still a pretty strong episode, but the ending kind of let me down. It felt like that episode of Full House where one of the daughters develops an eating disorder and it's cured by a good heart to heart with her dad.
The spouse and I somehow (don't question it, this is what conversations at my house are like) began discussing what BSG would be like if you dubbed it over with Looney Tunes.
You know Tigh would be Yosemite Sam.
You know Starbuck would be Bugs Bunny.
Six? Probably the Tasmanian Devil.
It was all good fun until the spouse pointed out that Admiral Adama would be Foghorn Leghorn.
The worst thing is, he's right.
You have never been less frakkin prepared than you are for the final stretch of season 3. NEVER.
Big improvement over the last 2 episodes this one. I especially like the interractions between Roslin and Tyrol, and the Baltar backstory. Anyway, from here on out the rest of the season is just incredible imo, so enjoy!
So late to the party, but this is my favorite episode of the show so far, and became so the moment Baltar switched into the Aerelon accent.
Story time: I have lived in West Virginia all my life. I'm aware of the stereotypes from the outside and I'm aware of the expectations from within. As a woman, I'm expected to marry young (probably to a coal miner) and crank out a few babies and live just above the poverty line for the rest of my life. People who hear my native accent assume I'm stupid, or xenophobic (and homophobic, and transphobic, and racist and–), or inbred.
So when I was quite young, I began to work on my accent. People on TV didn't talk like I did. Not actors, not the president–hell, not even politicians in West Virginia. And I began to assume that to be successful, to be anything other than that awful stereotype, I had to talk like the people on TV.
It's fifteen years later, and I talk like the people on TV, except when I'm angry, or excited, or talking very fast and I forget myself. When that happens, my "twang" comes out. I try very hard not to let that happen. Recently, I was in a HPA meeting over Skype (hi, Mark, it's Kaci!) and we had a new team member that week. We were talking about Pottermore and sorting and, excited to share my thoughts about that, I let my accent slip. The new team member interrupted me by gasping, "OH MY GOD IS THAT ACCENT FOR REAL?!" I tried to let it go but I ended up legitimately crying that night because I was so angry that I'd let myself slip and that the new team member had called me out on it. It embarrassed me to be heard like that, for all the reasons Baltar mentions to Tyrol.
Maybe I'm consuming the wrong media but I have never seen accents addressed that way. I've seen class addressed, and being born into a certain area or certain trade, but I've never seen a show or movie or book address accents in this manner, unless it was referring to people for whom English is their second language. (Which for the record is equally valid, and has the same effect of people judging you for the way you speak, and I completely acknowledge that.)
So already, I'm pre-disposed to love this episode. And then they go and make the main story about being forced into a trade because that's what your parents did, and energy production (in this case, fuel) and OH, HAI MY ENTIRE FEELINGS ABOUT THE WEST VIRGINIA COAL INDUSTRY. What's even worse is that here in WV, we're taught from a young age that we SHOULD go into it like our parents, that it's a GOOD thing to not have any other options. I'm trying to keep this short because I already wrote a piece about this for the HPA during our Climate Crisis campaign and I don't want to repeat myself, but as the granddaughter of a UMWA coal miner, I was nodding along SO HARD during this entire episode and seeing my grandfather in Tyrol.
Maybe they weren't talking specifically about West Virginia when they wrote this episode, but it felt like they were. And that's not something that gets discussed too often in the media, so…yeah. My new favorite.
I'm late to the party too, so I will party with you! *parties*
My maternal grandmother has a Texas accent. She's 95 and she's had it all her life. She had two daughters, who both no longer have any trace of a Texas accent. I don't know if this is because they went to finishing school or whatever when they were young and were forced to get rid of it, or whether they, like you, consciously decided to sound less Texan. My dad, on the other hand, still has his accent and my friends would comment on it when I was a kid. (I live in Wisconsin where southern accents are not common.) My uncle, my mom's brother, also had an accent (he's dead now), so I wonder if it might be a slightly gendered thing–like it was harder for the women to be taken seriously as academics and in the workforce, so they got rid of their accent just in case it would help. I really have no idea though.
In an ideal world nobody would feel like they had to hide their accent in order to be respected or listened to. It is a shame that some accents are dragged out when people want to convey "uneducated yokel" or whatever. It's one of those subtle things that nevertheless works its way into our consciousness. I like that Baltar's Aerilon accent sounds Cockney, which is associated with the working class, while his usual accent sounds aristocratic.
(ETA: it sounds Cockney to my American ears, but apparently it's Yorkshire and I don't know what I'm talking about.)
This episode was hard for me too. I'm from rural Michigan and am 7th generation Iron Ore Miner, so every shot of the refinery brought me back to my summers working there, or our annual class trips to show us where we will eventually work–so I am predisposed to support ALL OF THE UNIONS. I began doubting Roslin as President; if you don't support the working class I do not support you and will cheer for your eventual downfall.
When everyone was reaching under the belts I was sure someone was gonna get scalped, or an arm ripped off (this happened to a family friend at the mine), so I was relieved when it wasn't a serious injury.
And YES to the accent thing. I've managed to lose my Yooper accent, but people still occasionally comment on it (I CANNOT say "bag" the normal American way, it's so hard!) and express their surprise that I was able to leave the frozen north and get a real office job in DC. Yes, I do fulfill some stereotypes–I was first person in my family to go to college, first woman to work in the mine, and I love me some flannel. But I am still just as competent and I hate that people are surprised that the daughter of laborers can earn a place at a great college! I want to start carrying around copies of this episode to educate the haters!
This is a really difficult episode for me to watch, because I honestly DON'T know what I'd do if I were a higher-up in charge of assigning jobs and ships and stuff. If you have essential, shitty, dangerous jobs that need to be done and not enough people to do them and no way of getting more people, what the fuck do you DO? Personally I would pay them a whole shitload of money, but money is kind of a weird issue in the fleet I suppose. It's not like they have a mint or banks. Still, you'd think they could get SOME kind of currency going.
"You're always welcome in one of my beds." OH REALLY Adama.
Roslin's comment about them being on the run for their lives is certainly true, but they've been on the run for a LONG time now and they don't know when or if they will find Earth or another planet to settle on. THIS is when it's time to talk about Zarek's concerns from "Bastille Day". How to build a working society WITHIN the fleet, not just plan on getting one set up when you get somewhere. And frankly, Roslin should know this–she used to be On The Side Of The People and now she's being sarcastic about overtime.
Also, book banning/burning is not cool. Laura, I really want to like you but when you do things like ban abortion and burn books, you start turning into my least favorite kind of politician.
This episode seems particularly relevant right now. But I can't really think about it or I'll get angry and depressed. But what Baltar says about there being one set of rules for the haves and another for the have-nots is just too true right now.
Yeah, sure, Adama, start shooting people. I'm sure that'll raise morale.
I like the Chief's idea of having a rotation going. Let's get some socialism up in here. (I am not kidding.) (Dammit, is this going to go to the mod queue because I said socialism?) (Whatever I AM A MOD NOW I HAVE THE POWAH)
The thing with Seelix at the end almost makes me cry. She gets a shiny new pin! And Starbuck being a drill sergeant! Is there any better present. <3!
And yes, I think this episode absolutely did better than "The Woman King" at showing systematic oppression. Because the two sides were ENTIRELY UNDERSTANDABLE. It wasn't about one dude killing people who were born on a particular planet, it was about how the perfectly reasonable system they've got going has MAJOR flaws simply because of how the world works.